BASILDON Hospital’s finances are being investigated after its debt was predicted to more than double in just one year.

Health watchdog Monitor is urgently looking into the matter after the debt estimate for the end of this financial year rocketed from £6.5million to at least £14.2million.

Hospital bosses, who flagged up the financial woes to the regulator, blame: ! Relentless pressure on A&E ! The national shortage of doctors, leading to huge agency staff bills ! The cost of improvements in bringing the hospital out of special measures this summer.

Chief executive Clare Panniker said: “This has not come as a surprise. We are already well under way with the work, which we believe will address our current position.

“But I want people to know we won’t be doing anything that will affect the quality of care. I will protect and ensure safe staffing levels on the wards. That is an absolute line in the sand.”

In the new year, the hospital will apply for extra Government funding.

Unlike other trusts, it used its own savings to pay for improvements needed to pull it out of special measures, whereas about £120million was provided to 14 other trusts in a samiliar situation.

Mrs Panniker said: “We took the view we needed to try to resolve asmany of these issues as possible by ourselves.

Perhaps other trusts didn’t have that facility at that time.

“We concentrated on putting investment where we needed to be making services fit for purpose and that was the right thing to do.

“I think getting involved in an argument about who is going to pay for what would have been missing the point.

“I think we needed to take responsibility for making improvements that we made, employing nurses and doctors, opening all the beds. It was all absolutely the right thing to do and we had the money at the time to be able to do that.

“I don’t regret that we took responsibility.”

Laura Mills, deputy regional director at Monitor, said: “Basildon has made great progress in improving its services for patients, but it appears to be struggling financially.

“Wewant to find out why the trust’s finances are deteriorating and ensure its leadership is taking appropriate action to address this challenge.”

It is one of nine of the 149 foundation trusts currently being probed by Monitor, but not all are for financial reasons.